Guinea’s Mines Minister, Mahmoud Thiam, dismissed an opposition leader’s threat that Vale SA’s
$2.5 billion purchase of iron-ore deposits in the country would
not be valid.

Vale, the world’s largest iron-ore producer, is buying the
assets from BSG Resources (Guinea) Ltd., it said on April 30.
The deal includes the Simandou North Blocks 1 and 2, previously
owned by Rio Tinto Group.

“There is no opposition -- the Vale-BSGR deal is between
two private companies; BSGR has a legal title and decided on a
joint venture with Vale,” Thiam said in an e-mailed statement
from the capital, Conakry, today.

Aluminum Corp. of China last month agreed to pay $1.35
billion for a stake in Rio’s neighboring Simandou project.
Chinalco, as the state-owned company is known, will acquire 45
percent of the project by funding development over the next two
to three years.

Government support “also goes for the contemplated Rio-
Chinalco deal and any future joint venture of a similar
nature,” Thiam said.